Very Different
by With A Midnight Smile
Summary: Mori's encounters with his besotted fangirls always end the same way; he doesn't speak, and they cry. Haruhi knows this, but goes ahead anyway. One-shot.


Very Different

**Words: 1,020  
**

**Warnings: None**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. Bisco Hatori does.**

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"I... I like you," the girl would say, staring at the boy she confessed to.

He was always apathetic for these moments, when a girl – sometimes not even one who usually designated him – would come up to him. It was always the same. On his way to the Host Club room after Kendo, only on the days where Haninozuka Mitsukuni, better known as Hani, would have been helping out the Karate Club, or had moved on ahead on his own, a shy girl would request to speak with him for a moment. Morinozuka Takashi – just Mori to most – would nod, and they would walk a small ways.

Fujioka Haruhi, a girl masquerading as a boy to pay off a hefty debt to the Host Club, had seen the situation many times. She would watch as Mori stood, the tallest boy in the school looking down on the girl who confessed her love to the "wild" typed boy. The silent third year student was an imposing presence, but somehow his shy fans, for he seemed to attract timid girls in particular, could gather the courage to tell him of their feelings, knowing full well how he treated each encounter. There would be silence for a moment, as Mori just _looked_ at the girl, and she would eventually leave in tears, knowing that by telling the boy her feelings she had done nothing to forge a relationship of any sort with him.

Wondering idly, Haruhi thought on Mori. He was two years her senior, and less than one month from graduating. The Morinozuka heir who had willingly pledged himself to help Hani in every endeavor that he could, could be categorized as the "strong, silent type," or "tall, dark, and handsome." He wasn't annoying like some of the other Host Club members. He wasn't dramatic and expressive like Tamaki. He wasn't cool like Kyouya or sweet like Hani. Mori wasn't like the twins either, who despite being The Twins were very different people, no matter what everyone else seemed to think.

Instead, Mori was distant, and could often be compared to furniture for all that he participated in anything but school and Kendo. It was obvious that he had joined the Host Club not to entertain girls or to have any fun himself, but to allow his diminutive friend to do whatever he wanted, and part of that could be achieved in the club. He was a silent protector and caretaker of the smallest member, and would, on occasion, help Haruhi as well by picking her up to save her from the clutches of the Hitachiin twins or Tamaki, or helping her get things from a too high up shelf.

Haruhi supposed that this was why, in early February, she had decided. After Kaoru's confession of love to her at the amusement park a few months ago, she had become more aware that boys – particularly the Host boys – might actually look at her the way their customers did. When Hikaru, too, had confessed at the New Year's party, she had realized that maybe, just maybe, there was a reason why they liked her so much. Tamaki liked her too, she found, but the blond host was clingy, annoying, and far too flirtatious.

She had decided that she rather liked Mori.

Three days after Valentines Day, she found him walking to the Third Music Room alone. It was obvious to her that by confessing she would gain nothing, and possibly lose the thin threads of friendship that loosely bound them. It might make things awkward between them, but Haruhi was nothing if not pragmatic. She understood the risk and took it anyway.

"Mori-senpai," he turned his head slightly, long strides slowing as Haruhi caught up to him. "Can I speak to you for a second?" She felt a little silly, knowing that it would end in rejection, but pressed on as Mori halted in the under-cover outdoor hall of the first floor.

Intense gray eyes looked down at her, but Haruhi wasn't going to stammer and look down like the other girls. It wasn't in her character to be anything less than blunt and straight forward, which, she supposed, was part of her appeal as the "natural type" since the girls who designated her always knew she would tell them the bold-faced truth and not try to sugar coat it.

"I like you," stated Haruhi calmly, staring him straight in the eye. There was a moment of silence as they stood only about a pace apart before Mori reached out and ruffled her hair.

"I'm sorry," he said, and turned around, walking away. The cross-dressing host knew that what had just happened was very different from the normal interactions between Mori and one of the girls who liked him.

She smiled and continued on her way to the third music room, contemplating what she should make for dinner that night.

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**A/n: I love the pairing of Haruhi and Mori, but I always end up kind of sad because most people initiate it in a bad way... and I can hardly find any. Seriously, I exhausted an entire C2 in one day. It was pretty sad.**

**Anyway, it occurred to me after reading a (bad) attempt at supposed Mori-Haruhi rejection fic, that people who usually do that don't make her terribly in character. Haruhi recognizes these feelings in this story as a crush (not the love that made her ill in the more recent pats of the manga) and deals with it in a very Haruhi fashion. People usually have them dancing around each other and stammering and such. So I did what I had to do... and wrote this.**

**Short but sweet, and done. Bye.**


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